Binge Watching to Binge Serving in India: Revolution, Regulations and Restrictions of Over-the-Top (OTT) Platforms

Abstract

Information technology has changed the living style of people in the last few decades by its evolution and revolution. So, ‘digitalisation’ is considered as very imperative in human history especially after the ‘industrial revolution’. With the changing paradigm, digitalisation has provided enormous space for the entertainment of Individuals through the Over-the-Top (OTT) video platforms on their demand. In India, the significant growths of OTT platforms have been noticed during the last decade with an increasingly growing number of consumers. With such huge demand, a surge of consumers in India, the OTT became a commodity rather than a luxury. Further, the demands of consumers & internationalisation open up its OTT market for domestic as well as international players. The OTT players like Hotstar and Jio Cinema has expanded a stouter position, whereas global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime have also extended progressively their market share in India. According to one report, the Video on Demand (VoD) industry is still at its emerging stage but the entry of 40 VoD companies in a span of just three years indicates the popularity and demand of such industry. This huge demand has exposed the concept of ‘Binge Watching’ in India as this platform provides on-demand, anywhere access, without a commercial break and unlimited access. However, these growing OTT players and online content have faced many controversies and fought legal battles in India due to the lack of regulatory mechanisms. This paper explores the emergence & growth of OTT platforms with their recent trends in India. Further, the paper specifically focuses on the regulatory regime of OTT platforms since the beginning and its current scenario.